The bright scarlet berries of this plant, formed of the calyx, are extremely attractive and aromatic. The egg-shaped leaves are evergreen, dark and shining above and a lighter colour beneath, and have blunt-toothed margins. The white or pale pink flowers are campanulate with recurved lobes.

Ganltheria hitmifitsa, or Creeping Gaultheria, is a tufted species with flowering branches one to five inches long and small oval leaves. The pinkish-white flowers are depressed-campanulate, little exceeding the calyx in length, and the fruit resembles that of the preceding species. These plants are named after Hugues Gaultier, a naturalist and court-physician at Quebec in the middle of the 18th century.